American Craft Beer Week & Happy Birthday, Jack!

by Renee on May 10, 2015

May has rolled around, and once again American Craft Beer Week is here! As I noted in my blog post at this time last year, it’s also the birthday of the father of craft beer, my father, Jack McAuliffe! Jack turns 70 on May 11th, and I’m looking forward to having a toast with him at a big summer shindig at his place in July! I’m pretty sure I’ll be road tripping it so I can bring a keg of New Albion Ale with me…what party of Jack’s would be complete without it!?

Meanwhile, the Brewer’s Association has this to say about celebrating craft beer this week: “The United States is now home to more than 3,400 small and independent craft brewers and Americans’ interest and excitement for craft beer is at historic levels.” We’ve come quite a long way from the founding of New Albion Brewing Company in Sonoma in 1976!

To celebrate, there are sure to be events going on in your area–here in Cleveland, the localGirls Pint Out group is having a Dogfish outing on Friday. But really the best way to celebrate is to lift a glass of your favorite craft beer, as Jack is doing here–drinking New Albion Ale with Platform Beer’s head brewer Shaun Yasaki. We mashed in the latest 10 bbl batch last week, and you can expect to find New Albion Ale on tap again at the end of this month! (At Platform, some Heinen’s stores, Flip Side, and several other venues…stay tuned to social media for updates!) Cheers to many more years of growth for American-owned, hand crafted brews!